A variety of brewing apparatus have been developed to combine heated water with a brewing substance such as ground coffee or tea material in order to infuse the material and produce a brewed beverage. There are many ways to combine the water with the brewing substance. One way is to place the substance in a filter device such as a disposable filter paper and place the filter paper and brewing substance in a brewing funnel or basket. The water is mixed with the brewing substance in the filter thereby allowing the brewed substance to filter through the paper leaving the saturated brewing substance in the filter paper. The saturated substance and used filter paper can be thrown away.
Another way of brewing beverage is to encapsulate the brewing substance in a filter material. The brewing substance in the filter material provides a convenient package for handling a predetermined quantity of brewing substance. The filter material provides a package or container for the brewing substance. This package allows the brewing substance to be handled prior to brewing and after brewing without complication or mess.
Such brewing substances pre-packaged in filter material are referred to as “pods” or “sachets.” Pods can be compressed while packaging in the filter material or left in a generally loose condition. Pods are generally shaped in a circular shape having a generally flattened configuration. The pods often are provided in the shape of a disc or puck. Pods generally range in a size from approximately 45-60 mm and contain approximately 9-11 grams of brewing substance. The typical pod is used to produce approximately 8 ounces of brewed beverage.
By way of background, it may be detrimental to initiate a brewing cycle in a brewer when the heated water reservoir or tank is “dry.” While the tank may not be totally devoid of water it may be so low that the result, the absence of water, is at least approximately the same as if the tank were dry. In this regard, such brewers include a reservoir which is used to retain a quantity of water which is heated and then subsequently used during a brewing cycle. It is detrimental to initiate a brewing process with a dry tank since it will cause the heating device or element of the tank to rapidly heat the air in the tank and possibly damage the heating element. In some situations, the heating element may be damaged during a single cycle when the level of water is sufficiently low or there is no water in the tank and, in other situations, perhaps, multiple heating cycles may be required before damage occurs. The reason for the generally rapid heating is that the empty or dry tank is a volume which merely contains air. Under normal operating conditions, this volume would contain water which would absorb the heat generated by the heating element. In contrast, when the tank is dry, the air rapidly heats, potentially resulting in damage to the heating element and possibly other system components.
As such, it is desirable to provide an apparatus, system and method for preventing a “dry plug” condition. In other words, it is desirable to prevent the system from initiating a heating cycle of the tank when an insufficient amount of water is retained in the tank after plugging in or providing power to the system. As such, it would be desirable to provide a system which prevents initiating a heating cycle when an insufficient amount of water is retained in the tank without control of the user such that it will prevent the user from damaging the apparatus.